Suspension

Suspension Length The length of your suspension will mostly affect how well your vehicle avoids damage from difficult, uneven terrain as well as your vehicle's cornering ability. A higher suspension will improve your vehicle's handling when driving over sharp dips and peaks in a race track's terrain. The higher your suspension, the better the chances that you will coast over such obstacles without affecting the direction in which your vehicle is heading. A higher suspension will also prevent your car from bottoming out on rough terrain, a situation that would lead to potential armor damage (particularly to front armor) and loss of speed and direction. A lower suspension will improve your vehicle's ability to corner tightly. In practice, the lower center of gravity afforded by a low suspension will translate to less counter-steering in tight corners, less loss of speed and considerably less understeer when tackling a corner at high speeds.

Suspension Stiffness The stiffness of your suspension will affect your vehicle’s ability to absorb uneven terrain and your ability to corner. Contrary to suspension height, which will determine whether you lose speed or take damage from bumps and holes in the road, suspension stiffness will affect how your vehicle banks and dips after entering or exiting uneven terrain. A softer suspension will improve a vehicle’s handling when driving over tough terrain: it will maintain the car’s level while your vehicle’s wheels move up and down along the suspension strut. A stiffer suspension will cause your vehicle to “mirror” the shape of the terrain it is tackling, which can cause your vehicle to bounce wildly for several turns after exiting a patch of tough ground (this essentially prevents you from adjusting your speed and your heading effectively until your vehicle stops bouncing). A stiff suspension can improve cornering speed by reducing the body roll in turns although it will cause the vehicle to understeer slightly. Generally speaking, this is a preferred setting on flat, fast tracks to maintain speed and reduce counter-steering when taking corners at high speeds.